Joel Richards has narrated 129 audiobooks on Listento.it by 90 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 620 ratings. The most-rated is The 1-Page Marketing Plan.
Fair Play
Summary
Revolutionary War officer Nathan Hale, one of America's first spies, said, "Any kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary." A statue of Hale stands outside CIA headquarters, and the agency often cites his statement as one of its guiding principles. But who decides what is necessary for the public good, and is it really true that any kind of service is permissible for the public good? These questions are at the heart of James M. Olson's book, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying. Olson, a veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, takes listeners inside the real world of intelligence to describe the difficult dilemmas that field officers face on an almost daily basis. Far from being a dry theoretical treatise, this fascinating book uses actual intelligence operations to illustrate how murky their moral choices can be. Listeners will be surprised to learn that the CIA provides very little guidance on what is, or is not, permissible. Rather than empowering field officers, the author has found that this lack of guidelines actually hampers operations. Olson believes that US intelligence officers need clearer moral guidelines to make correct, quick decisions.
©2006 Potomac Books, Inc. (P)2018 Tantor
I Am Providence
Summary
For fans of legendary pulp author H. P. Lovecraft, there is nothing bigger than the annual Providence-based convention called the Summer Tentacular. Horror writer Colleen Danzig doesn't know what to expect when she arrives, but is unsettled to find that among the hob-knobbing between scholars and literary critics are a group of real freaks: book collectors looking for volumes bound in human skin, and true believers claiming the power to summon the Elder God Cthulhu, one of their idol's most horrific fictional creations, before the weekend is out. Colleen's trip spirals into a nightmare when her roommate for the weekend, an obnoxious novelist known as Panossian, turns up dead, his face neatly removed. What's more unsettling is that, in the aftermath of the murder, there is little concern among the convention goers. The Summer Tentacular continues uninterrupted, except by a few bumbling police. Everyone at the convention is a possible suspect, but only Colleen seems to show any interest in solving the murder. So she delves deep into the darkness, where occult truths have been lurking since the beginning of time. A darkness where Panossian is waiting, spending a lot of time thinking about Colleen, narrating a new Lovecraftian tale that could very well spell her doom.
©2016 Nick Mamatas (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
The Archangel: An Azrael Story
Summary
The Archangel of Death is the master of taking human life. But keeping mortals alive? Not exactly Azrael's forte. For thousands of years, Azrael’s greatest enemy has been silent. Leaving him in relative peace for the first time since the great angel war. Now that silence has been broken, and the Morning Star has returned with a dangerous ultimatum: Azrael can join, or watch everything he loves be destroyed. Two lives hang in the balance - Azrael’s beloved human wife, Nadine, and their unborn, part-angel son...Warren. The Archangel is a standalone story that happens three decades before The Soul Summoner begins. It can be listened to in any order, but it is recommended for this novella to be heard later in the series. The Soul Summoner series order: Book 1 – The Soul Summoner Book 2 – The Siren Book 3 – The Angel of Death Book 4 – The Taken Book 5 - The Sacrifice Book 6 - The Regular Guy Book 7 - The Soul Destroyer Book 8 - The Guardian Book 9 - The Daughter of Zion The Soul Summoner companion stories: The Detective: A Nathan McNamara Story The Mercenary: A Warren Parish Story The Archangel: An Azrael Story
©2019 Elicia Hyder (P)2020 Elicia Hyder
Queen
Summary
Queen is the climactic conclusion to New York Times best-selling author Timothy Zahn's thrilling space adventure series, the Sybil's War. Nicole Hammond is a Sibyl, a special human that has the ability to communicate with a strange alien ship called the Fyrantha. However, Nicole and all other sentient creatures are caught up in a war for control between two competing factions. Now, the street kid turned rebel leader has a plan that would restore freedom to all who have been shanghaied by the strange ship. She just has to unite the many alien races being forced to combat for their freedom, dodge slaving war profiteers determined to capture her, and convince an AI at war with itself to trust her above all else.
©2020 Timothy Zahn (P)2020 Tantor
The Science of Star Wars
Summary
Discover the science behind the most popular sci-fi franchise of all time. Capturing the imagination and hearts of crowds worldwide, Star Wars is a fantastic feat of science fiction and fantasy. We marvel at the variety of creatures and technology and the mystery behind the force. But how much of the Star Wars world is rooted in reality? Could we see some of the extraordinary inventions materialize in our world? The Science of Star Wars addresses 50 topics that span the movies' universe, such as battle technology, alien life, space travel, etc. You'll find fascinating explorations of physics, plausibility, and more. The book addresses many unanswered, burning questions including: How long before we get a Star Wars speeder off the ground? What exactly is the Force? How could Kylo Ren stop a blaster shot in mid-air? How could we live on a gas giant like Bespin? Nature versus nurture: How does it play out in the making of Jedi? How much would it cost to build the Death Star? And much more! Written for every fan of the films, you don't need to be a Jedi or a scientist to appreciate all of Mark Brake and Jon Chase's fun and informative analysis of this classic series. Prepare your mind to make the jump to light speed and find out about the facts behind one of our favorite modern epics.
©2016 Mark Brake and Jon Chase (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
The Man in the Crooked Hat
Summary
Private investigator Jack Pellum has spent two years searching for the man he believes murdered his wife - a man he last saw wearing a peacoat and a fedora. Months of posting flyers and combing through crime records yields no leads. Then a local writer commits suicide, and he leaves a bewildering message that may be the first breadcrumb in a winding trail of unsolved murders.... Michael Underhill is a philosophical man preoccupied by what-ifs and could-have-beens, but his life is finally coming together. He has a sweet and beautiful girlfriend, and, together, they're building their future home. Nothing will go wrong - not if Underhill has anything to say about it, but the problem is that he has a dark and secret past, and it's coming back to haunt him. Inexorably drawn together, these two men find themselves caught up in a mystery where there is far more than what meets the eye, and nothing can be taken for granted.
©2017 Harry Dolan (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Deep Learning
Summary
Deep learning is an artificial intelligence technology that enables computer vision, speech recognition in mobile phones, machine translation, AI games, driverless cars, and other applications. When we use consumer products from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, or Baidu, we are often interacting with a deep learning system. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, computer scientist John Kelleher offers an accessible and concise but comprehensive introduction to the fundamental technology at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution. Kelleher explains some of the basic concepts in deep learning, presents a history of advances in the field, and discusses the current state of the art. He describes the most important deep learning architectures, including autoencoders, recurrent neural networks, and long short-term networks, as well as such recent developments as Generative Adversarial Networks and capsule networks. He also provides a comprehensive introduction to the two fundamental algorithms in deep learning: gradient descent and backpropagation. Finally, Kelleher considers the future of deep learning-major trends, possible developments, and significant challenges.
©2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2019 Gildan Media
Daddy Duty
Summary
Two teenage were-dragons. Two terrible dads. A nest of vampires.... Nate Temple and his pal, Alucard, just want a little peace and quiet after the events of Tiny Gods, but it just isn't in the cards for them. Tory leaves town and asks them to watch over the rebellious Reds. But they have other plans. When love is in the air, there is nothing a teenager wouldn't do. And there is nothing a dad wouldn't do to keep them safe. Even if it involves a Johnson Beaver concert, a magical djinn, and a herd of centaurs. This wild, fast-paced novella is a nice breather after the events of Tiny Gods, and brings back a whole lot of pain and humor to Nate Temple. If he can reason with the estrogen-filled shifter dragons before they burn Kansas City to the ground.... If you like Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Ilona Andrews, Linsey Hall, McKenzie Hunter, or Ella Summers, you will love this novella of the Temple Chronicles.
©2017 Shayne Silvers (P)2018 Shayne Silvers
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787
Summary
This classic work explains the evolution of American political thought from the Declaration of Independence to the ratification of the Constitution. In so doing, it greatly illuminates the origins of the present American political system.
©1998 The University of North Carolina Press (P)2018 Tantor
A Wretched and Precarious Situation
Summary
A Kirkus Reviews best nonfiction book of 2016. A remarkable true story of adventure, betrayal, and survival set in one of the world's most inhospitable places. In 1906, from atop a snow-swept hill in the ice fields northwest of Greenland, hundreds of miles from another human being, Commander Robert E. Peary spotted a line of mysterious peaks looming in the distance. He called this unexplored realm "Crocker Land". Scientists and explorers agreed that the world-famous explorer had discovered a new continent rising from the frozen Arctic Ocean. Several years later, two of Peary's disciples, George Borup and Donald MacMillan, assembled a team of amateur adventurers to investigate Crocker Land. Before them lay a chance at the kind of lasting fame enjoyed by Magellan, Columbus, and Captain Cook. While filling in the last blank space on the globe, they might find new species of plants or animals, or even men; in the era of Jules Verne and HG Wells, anything seemed possible. Renowned scientific institutions, and even former president Theodore Roosevelt, rushed to endorse the expedition. What followed was a sequence of events that none of the explorers could have imagined. Trapped in a true-life adventure story, the men endured howling blizzards, unearthly cold, food shortages, isolation, a fatal boating accident, a drunken sea captain, disease, dissension, and a horrific crime. But the team pushed on through every obstacle, driven forward by the mystery of Crocker Land and faint hopes that they someday would make it home. Populated with a cast of memorable characters, and based on years of research in previously untapped sources, A Wretched and Precarious Situation is a harrowing Arctic narrative unlike any other.
©2017 David Welky (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Tiny Gods
Summary
Power is patient, power is kind.... No, wait. That's not right. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.... Just ask his ex-fiancée. It's almost Nate's birthday, so, he can cry if he wants to. That is, if he lives to see it.... Because a lot of people want him dead: his fiancée, his long-lost ancestor, the good wizards, the dark wizards, and.... Look, it's easier to list who doesn't want to kill him. To prevent a shifter-versus-wizard war, Nate steps in to draw a line in the sand, picking a fight with the deadliest magic slingers on the planet... and then he tries to rob them. And with Achilles angry at Nate for crashing his fight night, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse breathing down his neck, gods hiding behind mortal skins, and an accidental shifter infection with a cheerful Swedish male dancer, Nate has his hands full. But when his enemies decide to wake a god, the only way for Nate to level the playing field is to open an early birthday present from the Mad Hatter... and that's when he finds out that nothing is ever simple, and that no one was ever who he thought they were all these years.
©2017 Argento Publishing, LLC (P)2017 Argento Publishing, LLC
The Devil Is Here in These Hills
Summary
From before the dawn of the 20th century until the arrival of the New Deal, one of the most protracted and deadly labor struggles in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were 50,000 mine workers, the nation's largest labor union, and the legendary "miners' angel", Mother Jones. The fight for unionization and civil rights sparked a political crisis verging on civil war that stretched from the creeks and hollows to the courts and the US Senate. In The Devil Is Here in These Hills, celebrated labor historian James Green tells the story of West Virginia and coal like never before. The value of West Virginia's coalfields had been known for decades, and after rail arrived in the 1870s, industrialists pushed fast into the wilderness, digging mines and building company towns where they wielded nearly complete control over everyday life. The state's high-quality coal drove American expansion and industrialization. But for tens of thousands of laborers, including boys as young as 10, mining life showed the bitter irony of the state motto: "mountaineers are always free". Attempts to unionize were met with stiff resistance. Fundamental rights were bent, then broken, and the violence evolved from bloody skirmishes to open armed conflict as an army of miners marched to an explosive showdown. Extensively researched and told in vibrant detail, The Devil Is Here in These Hills is the definitive book on an essential chapter in the history of American freedom.
©2015 James Green. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2015 Audible Inc.
Subterrestrial
Summary
An accident during the construction of a tunnel beneath the Bering Strait leads to the discovery of a network of caverns and evidence that hints at the survival of a primitive human species. Led by DARPA technologist Reinhard Thyssen, a team of experts from around the globe is dispatched into the subterranean maze to discover all they can before the caves completely flood. Something lurks in the darkness, though...a creature that has evolved into a predator unlike any the world has ever known, and it's up to the scientists to make sure that it never reaches the surface. If they can survive that long.
©2015 Michael McBride (P)2018 Tantor
Earth
Summary
The Victors know nothing but war. It has shaped them and changed them in ways that they didn't think possible. Now is not the time to lament on the friends lost, the wounds gained. The medics might be able to patch them up, but they can't heal their minds. Harmony is making their play for Earth, and the Troopers will be there to greet them. The Victors are finally going home over 200 years since they left for Sacremon. The last system-wide battle between the EHC and Harmony is about to begin.
©2016 Michael Chatfield (P)2018 Tantor
Osdal
Summary
Masoul wasn't just an uprising; it was the starting of a war. Harmony didn't start on Masoul; they were using it as a testing ground. Moretti has a lead on from where Harmony might have come. First, they need to defeat Harmony's forces in Osdal. Nerva's not going to throw his people at Harmony; this is not just a colonist uprising, this is a well-armed and well-backed military. They need more information. It comes down to the Triple-Twos to find out that information. Once again, the Victor brothers and their platoon will be right at the heart of Harmony. Nothing will be the same after Osdal.
©2016 Michael Chatfield (P)2018 Tantor
Rock Breaks Scissors
Summary
A practical guide to outguessing everything from multiple-choice tests to the office football pool to the stock market. People are predictable even when they try not to be. William Poundstone demonstrates how to turn this fact to personal advantage in scores of everyday situations, from playing the lottery to buying a home. Rock Breaks Scissors is mind-reading for real life. Will the next tennis serve go right or left? Will the market go up or down? Most people are poor at that kind of predicting. We are hard-wired to make bum bets on "trends" and "winning streaks" that are illusions. Yet ultimately we're all in the business of anticipating the actions of others. Poundstone reveals how to overcome the errors and improve the accuracy of your own outguessing. Rock Breaks Scissors is a hands-on guide to turning life's odds in your favor. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2014 William Poundsstone (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
AntiBio
Summary
Antibiotics. They have failed. All that's left are the Strains - bacteria so strong, they have brought the world to its knees. But humanity has fought on, carving out pockets of civilization in a wasteland known as the Sicklands, creating the super high-tech Clean Nation cities. From the cities, GenSOF has been born - Genetic Special Forces Operations. An elite military branch of the government that enlists men and women with specific genetic anomalies that allow them to be hosts to bacteria that even the Strains cannot defeat. Under the watchful eye of Control, GenSOF protects the Clean Nation cities from the ever-encroaching Strains and the diseased inhabitants of the Sicklands. But now, Control has other plans for GenSOF, and possibly the Clean Nation cities themselves, and it is up to the operators of GenSOF Zebra Squad, and their cloned Canine Units known as bug hounds, to find out what those plans are. Or die trying.
©2014 Jake Bible (P)2018 Tantor
To the Vanishing Point
Summary
It was just a boring drive through the Nevada desert...until the Sonderberg family picked up a beautiful young hitchhiker named Mouse and found themselves on a wild, careening ride down the exit ramp to Hell. It seems the entire universe is doomed unless Mouse, a transdimensional alien, can find and heal the dying cosmic Spinner who controls the very fabric of reality. Suddenly attacked by a demonic gas station attendant, axe-wielding rats, and fire-breathing cops, the Sondberg family must become warriors in a now-mystical motor home and battle pangalactic diners, weird worlds, impossible voids, and brain-bending realms of madness. They're driving into a fantastic nightmare to save all creation at the Vanishing Point on the Cosmic Road...which happens to be US Interstate 40!
©1999 Alan Dean Foster (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Brazilian Sleigh Ride
Summary
A fraud case leads Da Silva on a wild search across Brazil. It's snowing in New York, and Jimmy Martin is pleading for his life. He owes a loan shark $100,000, but he knows he will make his fortune if he can just hop a plane to Brazil. The lender gives him a 30-day extension, and Jimmy is on his way. But he will find Brazil a better place in which to end a life than to save one. Interpol detective José Da Silva has seen many schemers undone by Brazil. Jimmy Martin leaves the United States clutching a fistful of bearer bonds - some of which belong to the Brazilian government - and Da Silva is waiting with handcuffs when his plane arrives. But there's no sign of Martin. He slipped off in Recife, disappearing into the country's vast interior. If he is lucky, Da Silva will find him before the jungle takes its toll.
©1965 the estate of Robert L. Fish; This 2015 edition published by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
The Gone Dead Train
Summary
Best-selling sensation Lisa Turner conjures a riveting Southern Gothic mystery set in Memphis, with echoes of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Lisa Gardener, in which detective Billy Able is thrown into a vortex of bizarre murders, Santeria voodoo, flawed heroes, a damning photograph, and a stunning betrayal by a civil rights icon. After time away to recover from the aftermath of a horrible case that left his partner dead, Billy's back in Memphis, drawn into an ever-widening murder mystery that focuses on flawed heroes: a disgraced major league baseball player, two legendary blues musicians on the lam, a straight-arrow lady cop tortured by a guilty conscience, and two iconic civil rights warriors with secrets so dark they'll shock the nation. Detective Billy Able is at a crossroads. His previous case left him questioning everything he believed about his abilities as a cop and as a friend. Even though he's considering leaving police work behind, he's unable to turn off the instincts he's honed after a decade on the force. But when he stops a crime from being committed, he finds himself embroiled in a much bigger scandal. A murder that has just taken place has connections to a series of much older crimes dating back to the civil rights movement. As he investigates, Billy uncovers so many layers of secrets he can barely keep the truth from the lies. And he knows the straitlaced cop assigned to the case is hiding something big. But is it connected to the case? This time he's determined to make sure he finds out the truth before anything else can happen. But as the search for truth with the help of a Santeria priest leads him deeper into the underbelly of Memphis, will Billy make it out alive?
©2014 Lisa Turner (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers